Bulgarians Dispute Size of EU Electoral Roll

Petar Ivanov, from the Center for Demographic Policy, says there is a huge discrepancy between the electoral roll and the size of the population that needs to be explained.

Ivanov said that using the National Statistical Institute's data on the population, 6.9 million people should have the right to vote, while Central Election Commission data put the number at only 5.8 million. "This means that there are some 850,000 'dead souls,'" he said.

Election Commission spokesman Tsvetozar Tomov said fewer people were listed in the electoral register now compared to previous elections.

"Not all Bulgarians are allowed to vote in the European Parliamentary elections," he said, adding that Bulgarians living in Turkey, for example, do not have the right to vote.

"The main reason for such a wide gap between the actual number of people living in Bulgaria, and the people who appear in the election lists, is that there is a great number of Bulgarians who are registered as residents of the country, but the Central Election Commission has no information about their address abroad," Tomov added.

According to him, an "active" voters' registration should be introduced, but there is no threat to the legitimacy of the upcoming elections.